Eight viruses are reported from cowpeas in Africa. Three are beetle-transmitted (cowpea yellow mosaic comovirus, cowpea mottle virus (carmovirus?), and southern bean mosaic sobemovirus), two are aphid-borne (cowpea aphid-borne mosaic potyvirus and cucumber mosaic cucumovirus), two are whiteflytransmitted (cowpea golden mosaic virus (geminivirus?) and cowpea mild mottle carlavirus), and the vector of the eighth (sunn-hemp mosaic tobamovirus) is still unknown. Cowpea viruses are described from lowland, humid and sub-humid West Africa, as well as from mid-altitude ecological zones mainly found in eastern and southern Africa. Wherever facilities are limited and detailed characterization is not possible, a simple procedure using a combination of serology (agar-gel diffusion test), inoculation to test plants, and vector transmission studies, is proposed for the identification of the cowpea viruses reported so far from Africa. The possibilities of controlling these viruses are briefly discussed.
The immunoreactivity of a panel of polyclonal antibodies and monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) raised against African isolates ofpotyviruses from cowpea and African yam bean was examined in ELISAs. A serological study including reference isolates followed by further characterization in differential hosts resulted in separation of the potyviruses into two distinct serogroups, one containing blackeye cowpea mosaic virus (B1CMV) and the other containing cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (CAMV). Using biotin-labelled MAbs, the BICMV isolates were further subdivided into two serotypes and the CAMV isolates into five serotypes. Because both B1CMV and CAMV induce a very similar mosaic disease in cowpea, different ELISA procedures using mixed MAbs were evaluated and a single protocol was developed which allowed reliable diagnosis of both viruses.
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